The Chicago Bears made a major reach in the third-round by selecting LSU wide receiver Zavion Thomas, but the reaction from head coach Ben Johnson proves why he could break the team’s third-round curse.
The third-round of the NFL Draft hasn’t been kind in the past to Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles, in fact it’s been his worst round in terms of hit rate since taking over the role in 2022.
Under his watch, the third-round busts in Chicago include WR/RB Velus Jones Jr., DT Zacch Pickens , and OT Kiran Amegadjie . So, it’s easy to get concerned about the two third-round picks Chicago added on Friday in TE Sam Roush and WR Zavion Thomas .
However, it’s worth noting who’s really in control of the draft room this time around and that man is head coach Ben Johnson. While both are already being viewed as reaches, especially Thomas, I trust Johnson to identify the right fits for his offense.
And after hearing about Ben Johnson’s reaction to seeing Thomas in action on tape, it proves why this guy won’t just be another Velus Jones Jr. experiment for the Bears.
“This guy is going to be a weapon,” Bears assistant director of college scouting Francis St. Paul said on Friday. “This is one of the guys that Ben, when he saw the tape, started doing his little rocking and you could tell he was really excited about him.”
Speed is the top trait Thomas brings to the table. After running a 4.28 40-yard-dash at the NFL Combine, the second-fastest among all offensive players, Thomas now becomes the fastest player ever drafted by the Bears.
Speed has been the name of the game all offseason long for Chicago and finally Johnson gets to add a burner to his offense with both vertical and horizontal speed. He’s going to be a serious threat every time he steps on the field. But, that’s also the problem with this particular selection going into 2026.
The Bears already had a nice WR core going into the 2026 season with Rome Odunze , Luther Burden III , Kalif Raymond , and Jahdae Walker . After drafting Roush earlier in the third-round, it seemed like the Bears planned to lean more into 12 and 13 personnel looks using all three tight ends.
The selection of Thomas changes things, but it’s still going to be hard to find a consistent role for him in Year 1 outside of being a designed role player.
“This is a tough system. It's going to be a challenge for him to break through quickly (on offense),” general manager Ryan Poles explained. “But we're going to open that competition up for all of these guys coming in. I think we feel really good about the return ability that he has. He'll be with the rest of the guys to learn the offense, how does he do that, how fast does he come along? We all talk to our receivers and it's a challenging system. So, maybe that role starts small and grows over time. I don't want to put a cap on that. If he comes in and downloads fast and he's up and running, we'll see what happens.”
It’s very similar to how the Bears used Burden early on in 2025 before he started getting a grasp of the offense and producing on a consistent basis. Thomas can eventually take off, but early on it'll be tough to get him heavily involved.
Special teams is where Thomas can really make the most damage in Year 1. This guy’s speed is just as dangerous returning punts and kicks. At the very least, the Bears could have Devin Hester 2.0 back deep while slowly integrating him into the offense.
